The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Pentagon inspector general now is
investigating whether CENTCOM officials, including Ryckman, watered down
assessments on the rising jihadist threat to comport with the White
House.

If you've been following this story
about how the CENTCOM intelligence office cooked the books to downplay
the growth and threat represented by the Islamic State, the latest on
the scandal takes on a surreal quality.

Carolyn
Stewart, an army officer who helped identify ISIS targets, was fired
for cursing twice in the course of a year. Stewart was one of the
intelligence officers who helped expose CENTCOM's effort to alter
intelligence reports to match public statements on ISIS coming from the
White House.

At
the center of the controversy is the top civilian in CENTCOM
intelligence whom the army inspector general is looking at as one of the
primary culprits in the scandal.

The
woman at the center of the case makes a now-familiar allegation: that
the same military officials who cherry-picked information about the ISIS
war and downplayed the terror group’s rising threat also selectively
picked information about her. The Pentagon inspector general now is
investigating whether CENTCOM officials, including Ryckman, watered down
assessments on the rising jihadist threat to comport with the White
House.

The
woman at the center of the controversy in this case, Carolyn Stewart,
is a small person with a big voice. The Army veteran seemingly is demure
at first glance, with shoulder-length light brown hair. But as soon as
she speaks, it is clear she is not afraid to say exactly what she
thinks.

She
repeatedly prodded her lawyer throughout the day-long hearing about
which questions to ask, which evidence to present, and which details to
point out in her favor.

The
hearing was a window into how allegations of toxic work environments,
faulty reports, and bad leadership consumed the office tasked with
leading CENTCOM’s intelligence gathering. At issue during the hours-long
hearing was whether Stewart cursed at CENTCOM, and if she did curse,
whether that created a hostile work environment.

“I
went to other action officers to avoid Ms. Stewart,” one witness
explained to the judge, in support of the decision to reassign her.

The
hearing, held through a teleconference connecting DIA lawyers in
Washington with a judge in Atlanta and the complainant in Tampa, had all
the markings of a proper trial. Someone wore a robe and lawyers yelled
out objections.

But one couldn’t help thinking it was like an episode of The Office. Those
charged with helping target ISIS terrorists were instead obsessed with
things like who “bitched out” whom. The government claimed she said it
to another woman. Another witnesses said someone else said those words
to Stewart.

It
is worth noting that such debates were occupying a command post tasked
with leading the war on ISIS. And yet the key issue of the time was how
precisely Stewart handled a colleague telling her he would not adjust a
target order.

This
is a command problem of the first order. The commanding general and
his top aides are directly responsible for creating a work environment
conducive to the gathering of intelligence and writing good analyses.
That they failed in that task, and if not encouraged, then ignored the
enormous pressure being put on whistleblowers, is very disturbing.

The
I.G. is still in the process of investigating, and no final report is
expected until the summer. Meanwhile, the targeting office where
Stewart supposedly contributed to a "hostile work environment" continues
its work – apparently free of the pain of listening to profanity.